Better Movement, better health, better performance

Reaching Your Goals and More with Coach DShen

Whether it's learning the finer points of the kettlebell snatch, or figuring out why you can't run or swim faster, or optimizing nutrition for weight loss or performance, David loves seeing clients reach their goals in whatever activity they choose. Then, David brings it all together under the umbrella of health and wellness coaching, so that all aspects of life (like stress, sleep, or even the seemingly simple act of reaching your goals) empowers you to meet life's challenges with confidence and vitality.

LATEST POSTS

This post is a bit late in coming. I meant to write it earlier but when the virus crisis hit all things went by the wayside. Last year I had signed up for an Animal Flow Level 1 workshop. I ended up postponing it but then finally decided to take it this year in February[…]

We live in uncertain and extraordinary times as our society deals with a pandemic in our midst. The fear and stress accompanying this crisis can drive your eating patterns off kilter. Some of you may be eating (or even not eating) to alleviate negative feelings. Are one or more of these happening to you: Overeating[…]

During this time of COVID-19 crisis, we are all “sheltering in place” and our lives are upended in many ways. There is a lot of fear and anxiety over many things in this world, and sometimes we can get frozen in our tracks and unable to do anything. Anxiety is caused by a feeling of[…]

Image from Flickr. Heard today in my Laser Focused Coaching class – Watch for tension during the conversation Often when we have a coaching conversation, we may start to feel tension within ourselves. In the beginning, we may feel this and then retreat in fear, and it affects our ability to be present during the[…]

Heard in my Laser Focused Coaching class – Saying what’s going on in your mind This refers to when a client is talking, and as they talk usually you are processing too and are coming up with intuitively what is going on here and what needs to be addressed/corrected. What usually happens is you: Ignore[…]

Heard in my Laser Focused Coaching class: We must model for our clients. We must be ahead of them in self care and self development. We must always be working on our own issues. The more you take care of ourselves, the better coach you’ll be. We must always learning. Truth.

In my Laser Focused Coaching class, we talked about Thomas J. Leonard’s Coachability Index. He used this as something he gave to potential clients to gauge their coachability, each on a scale from 1 to 5: I can be relied upon to be on time for all calls and appointments. This is the right time[…]

Heard in my Laser Focused Coaching class: Coach the feelings/emotions first, before setting the agenda. Another good tip to not rush to action, if the circumstances don’t warrant it, and reminder to make sure the feelings behind what they say are explored full and deep enough before attempting to set the agenda for the conversation.[…]

Something I heard in my Laser Focused Coaching course was: “If you coach the who, the what follows naturally.” Any actions that a client will take are a natural output of a shift they have. If an exploration is more feeling based during a conversation, then use these inquiries to tease out a next step:[…]

In my Laser Focused Coaching class, we talked about the Top 10 Mistakes Coaches Make. They were very enlightening and I have definitely made a few of them, if not even still recently making those mistakes. You might want to check them out. I didn’t want to post them here out of respect for the[…]

Testimonials

I completed the Oakland Sprint Tri yesterday and can’t begin to tell you how much more comfortable I am in the water. The conditions helped (it was perfect), but the spearing, looking straight down, rotation, etc. really helped!

I’ve been working on improving my swimming technique with Total Immersion drills since 1/2011. I had been pretty happy with the improvements for most of the first year until I hit a plateau. During the first year of working on Total Immersion stuffs, I had also been closely following David Shen’s blog. When I found out David was going to be a coach, I knew I had to take a lesson with him. During the lesson, we started off with the basics like Superman glide moved onto stuff like the two beat kick and finished off with advanced stuff like early vertical forearm stuff. I finished the lesson feeling like I had learned a ton. I got ample feedback on each of the things we tried, and it was all recorded for me to review later if I needed to. Since that time, I have been diligently practicing the stuff I worked with David. All of it this was tremendously beneficial. Watching the video again recently reminded me of what an excellent instructor David is. In only 5 weeks, I am now far more balanced in the water. My two beat kick is night and day better. I am far more relaxed while I swim and that has allowed me to swim for a longer period of time without getting tired. At the moment, my swim pace is about 1 second faster per 100 yards given an equal amount of exertion. I feel like I am on the crux of being another 1 second faster within a month.
David Shen is a very, very, very good coach. I would strongly recommend him.

From the first meeting, Coach D took a holistic approach to building my swim technique. After giving me a functional test, he guided me to learn about mobility and conditioning that would support building my technique. During my swim coaching, Coach D used both video and in pool analysis to understand my stroke from various perspectives. After the pool training, Coach also sends video with thorough notes, written in great detail! One of Coach’s most special abilities is his style of finding the right cues to help me learn various aspects of the stroke I was struggling to learn. Coach D has a very calm and positive personality and so I never felt rushed and always in good hands. Most importantly, Coach D helped me realize my open water swim goals!

David Shen is one of those rare individuals, who, as a coach, is able to effectively translate his passion, experience, attention to detail & knowledge into an extremely meaningful learning experience for his students. I’ve been working with him as a swimming coach for about 3 months now and look forward to every coaching session with him – his conceptual approach to Total Immersion Swimming combined with his intuitive skills as a teacher make every session with him so worthwhile and inspiring. He’s been able to make me believe that I could “do it” despite my initial lack of confidence – an important trait for a coach to have!
Just last week, and with only 3 months of unlearning old habits and learning new ones and much practice, after getting out of the water from a half hour swim, a total stranger approached me from the dock and said, “I was watching you swim for the last 10 minutes and wanted to tell you that the way you swim is so beautiful and such a pleasure to watch”.
I couldn’t believe it and I was totally touched by her comment, and thought “so much work and such a great teacher”. Very grateful to be able to work with David and looking forward to experiencing more of his “coaching magic”.

I made a special trip from Israel for two weeks for swimming lessons with Coach DShen after I learned about him from his website and from his videos. I learned so much on details that I could not have picked up otherwise. I now have a great plan to improve!

I highly recommend Dave as a personal coach. He is dedicated to his craft, an inspiring
role model and willing to share vast access to resources. He’s a notch above many other
coaches in the field – a strong academic education as well as personal achievements such
as 6 Ironmans, multiple Alcatraz swims, Russian Kettlebell certification and more. He is
a special person to have that level of ambition and determination coupled with humility
and sensitivity. Dave has coached me on everything from health related issues, diet and
exercise, coping with a new devastating diagnosis, tough career decisions and family
relationships. We have had some sessions where I am laughing and energized and others
where I have been sobbing, and he just rolls with it like a pro. I have brought him
challenging and unpredictable issues and he knows when to put down the “playbook” and
use his intuition. I’ll never forget one particular session where I was in a terrible
predicament and he took me far out of the box to reconsider the way I was approaching a
choice. This helped me tremendously and provided a growing opportunity that had far-
reaching results for me.

I was looking to improve my long distance swimming because I am training to earn a place in the US Air Force Special Operations Command (not in the service yet). I was referred to David Shen from a family friend of mine and to be honest with you, I was skeptical at first about paying a pretty large amount for swim lessons. However, the moment the lesson began, I knew for a fact that having David as a swim coach was beyond priceless. The fact that he analyzed my form with one lap, and gave me critical feedback which caused my swimming to improve immediately, shows his extraordinary competence as a swim coach! Now y’all might not believe his competence as shown above. So here is the difference 3 lessons (a total of 3 hours) made to my 500-meter swim time. My very first 500-meter swim time was approximately 14:00. Now even for this time, I was exhausted after completing it. But now, after being taught by David, my 500-meter swim time has gone down by around 6 minutes and is now at 8:44! Moreover, I can now swim upwards of 3,500-meters (70 laps on a 25-meter pool) without exhaustion! I still can’t believe how much a great coach, like David Shen, can improve a person’s swimming. If you are looking for a coach who is passionate about his job, has a truckload of experience, and can effectively translate those characteristics into his coaching, then you have come to the right place. If you hadn’t guessed already, I highly, HIGHLY recommend David Shen!

I wanted to thank you for an incredibly meaningful coaching session yesterday. As I mentioned, I was feeling really disheartened and approached our call with some trepidation due to my own low state. However, I am so glad I stayed the course and was very honest with you about my feelings and the sticking point I was facing. Your questions were hugely transformative to my thought process. It was really bang on. Instead of going in circles which I can do at times in my own mind, each question enabled me to carve a clearer path forward and break the cycle I’ve been stuck in for the past few weeks. I cannot thank you enough!

It’s been over seven years since I’ve trained for an event. With two little kids, it makes it a bit tough to find time for myself, working out sometimes becomes the last thing on my list of things to do. In the last year, I’ve made it a priority and decided to sign up for the Santa Cruz Aqualathon. With a crazy work, kids, and travel schedule, I could only squeeze in one swim lesson with Dave. Having completed a number of open water swims, I am very comfortable in the water, but not very fast or efficient. The one lesson with Dave helped so much. I can’t thank Dave enough for working with me on just a few small tweaks that made a huge difference. Dave understands that you can’t fix everything all at once. He helped me focus on a couple of things I could do immediately to make a material impact on my swim time. I am planning on participating in the Santa Cruz Aqualathon again next year and will be scheduling a few lessons with Dave in preparation for the event.